I don’t agree with Bernie 100% and I have a feeling he would have had a much harder time beating Trump in 2020 than Joe Biden, but I do think he gets something about politics that the Biden administration is not. You gotta own your agenda and rally a majority of voters to it. You gotta keep it simple and you gotta be direct.
From Politico:
As the progressive Vermonter, not one to mince words, put it in an interview on Tuesday: “You really can’t win an election with a bumper sticker that says: ‘Well, we can’t do much, but the other side is worse.’”
“Say to the American people: ‘Look, we don’t have the votes to do it right now. We have two corporate Democrats who are not going to be with us,’” Sanders said, referring to Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
“The leadership has got to go out and say we don’t have the votes to pass anything significant right now. Sorry. You got 48 votes. And we need more to pass it. That should be the message of this campaign
I agree with Bernie. It’s time to name names. Manchin and Sinema are roadblocks to the Biden agenda, which is overwhelmingly popular with voters but is not being passed. Holding the house and electing enough senators to nuke the filibuster has to be the message to rally the base.
Biden is getting clobbered by inflation, gas prices, and his seeming inability to get anything done or dominate his party as Donald Trump dominated his. Trump has no problem supporting primary challenges to his intraparty enemies whether he is in or out of power and his base his loyal to him. I reject the cult of personality around Trump (and to a lesser extent around AOC and Bernie) and am glad Biden rejects that mode of politics, but there is also a party boss approach that worked for successful Democrats Biden seeks to emulate like FDR and LBJ. They let voters know who was threatening their agenda, they named names, and they got things done.
Biden needs to rapidly restructure his team and focus on economic issues. Move to the middle on crime and culture and move back to the populist center left on economics while keeping it simple. Go after OPEC, go after the oil companies, go after the GOP, go after the Supreme Court, and start looking like you’re fighting for ordinary Americans. Otherwise we are already seeing black and Hispanic and white working class voters abandon the Democrats and defect to the GOP or stay home.
I agree with pretty much all of this, and I enthusiastically agree with the strategy advice.
I quibble with the criticism of Joe Manchin.
For the last two years, Joe Manchin has been articulating recommendations and policy that DIRECTLY advance the strategy guidance you offer.
Had the Democratic Party spend the past two years listening rather more the Joe Manchin and rather less to AOC and Bernie Sanders, we would be in a MUCH stronger position now.
Our collective resistance to Joe Manchin shows how hard it will be for our party to follow the sage advice you present.
I agree with much of that actually. If the Squad and progressive caucus had allowed infrastructure to go through sooner it would’ve be a win notched before the fall of Kabul and Manchin’s initial targets were not far off from the final mark of BBB. I also get he’s the best Senator from West Virginia we are going to get in our lifetimes. Sinema is much more puzzling to me since she started as a progressive and seems to relish in owning the libs as much as possible.
Any black, Hispanic, or white working class voter who supports the GOP is literally committing suicide. The GOP has been actively working to scapegoat the first two and plunder the last group for decades.
The GOP is now actively targeting the first two (blacks and Hispanics) for actual violence in Florida, Texas, Georgia and Michigan. Those are just the most obvious.
I agree that our current approach is motivating these voters to stay home.
Frankly, it is motivating ME to stay home.
I have absolutely NOTHING to vote for this November. Nothing.
For Governor we’ll have a progressive Dem vs. likely Trump’s MA Chairman – sounds like plenty of reason to vote to me.
I agree with that and I also think “vote Democrat or commit suicide you moron” is a lousy slogan.
Heh. Of course not.
My point is that anybody — regardless of identity — who chooses to vote for the GOP is voting in favor of insurrection, fascism, thuggery, and domestic terrorism. That is just FACT.
I therefore think our mission is to find policies and politics that will attract blacks and Hispanics to vote Democratic.
I sincerely doubt that there are any “undecided” or “swing” voters left among white working-class voters. There will be even fewer of them by November.
The GOP is actively, aggressively, and intentionally purging their ranks of ANYBODY who has a room-temperature IQ and who believes in the rule of law. If you think I’m overstating the case, take a look at the recent data about mortality in red vs blue states (https://www.bmj.com/content/377/bmj-2021-069308) — especially among white working class people (emphasis original):
GOP policies in since 2008, and especially since 2020, are literally killing people.
I think our job is, therefore, to provide a welcoming hearth to those being purged from the GOP — so long as we make it clear that there is no place under our tent for racism, bigotry, and misogyny.
I am unconvinced that Maura Healey will show any leadership at all about:
I suspect that we’ll instead hear a whole lot of handwaving and propaganda about various “progressive” bumper-stickers that will result in little if any change for most Massachusetts residents.
We’ll hear lots about “affordable housing”. We’ll hear lots about LGBTQ issues. We’ll hear lots about “fighting” (which has become standard Democratic euphemism for “unable or unwilling to actually DO anything”).
We’ll hear lots about raising income tax rates on high incomes (and nothing will happen).
We see an inkling of this with the grandstanding about overriding the veto about issuing Drivers Licenses to undocumented immigrants. Yes, of course it was the right thing to do. Yes, of course Mr. Baker should not have vetoed it. It has approximately as much importance as the instantaneous action the legislature took to stop upskirting on the Green Line.
I’m more concerned about the owner of Sound Bites who is being prosecuted by federal authorities for crimes he is committing against his workers — specifically, a cook who has the audacity of insisting that he be paid for his work.
I met Denise Provost for the first time walking a picket line in front of a restaurant in Davis Square (long gone, by the way) who was similarly abusing their workers. I haven’t seen any picket lines around Sound Bites. I haven’t seen my new state rep. I don’t see Ayanna Pressley or hear anything from her at all.
We’re going to hear the same “progressive” slogans and bumper-stickers that we’ve heard for as long as this BMG community has existed.
NOTHING will come of any of that, because our Democratic leadership is no more willing to tackle our actual problems than our Republicans.
“Vote Democrat or Get a Trumpist” is no more appealing to me than “vote Democrat or commit suicide you moron”.
I doubt that I’ll vote. Maura Healey doesn’t need my vote to get elected. I will not vote for Ayanna Pressley — she has zero interest in Somerville or me.
If the Democrats — locally or nationally — want me to turn out, then the Democrats MUST give me something to vote for. I don’t see that shaping up for this November.
When I see something more than fund-raising appeals from local Democrats who want my vote, I may change my tune. Until then, I have better things to to.
Your version of Maura Healey is very different from mine. I’m actually with Sonia Chang-Diaz right now because I like her policy specifics and I do wonder about the “AG’s curse” when it comes to becoming Governor. However, I have been thrilled with Healey’s tenure as AG and in 2018 she was a rare incumbent I was enthusiastic about re-electing. Also, I wouldn’t be so quick to assume she does not need your vote. Deval Patrick is the only Dem Governor we’ve elected in a generation and even he only snuck into a second term thanks to a three-way race that year. His more progressive instincts were stymied by a less progressive legislature and yes, Healey’s might be too. That’s exactly why legislative races are so important, though I understand that your particular legislators may already be progressive so you may not be sure what else you can do about that. It still matters who the Governor is.
The most effective way for Maura Healey to get my vote is to show me concrete proposals for:
Those line items are only possible if the next Governor has the revenue to make it happen which is why passing the Fair Share Amendment is frankly more important than who the Governor is, although that race is important.
Diehl could do a lot of damage since he is far to the right of Baker and in a low turnout election anything can happen as Scott Brown showed us. Healey is a 20 point favorite right now, but so was
Martha Coakley. Healey and Chang-Diaz are running much better campaigns than Coakley did, but we cannot take their victory for granted.
https://www.fairsharema.com/
The first issue is not going to happen unless the voters pass the Fair Share Amendment which is on the ballot this fall and was endorsed by AG Healey who successfully defended its language in court. Sen. Chang Diaz has also been a strong advocate of this proposed amendment. Passing it will enable either of them to have the revenue to both make higher ed more affordable and fully fund our transit needs.
I am voting for it and the MTA is putting the full weight of its membership behind passing it. We beat back charters in 2016 and can pass this millionaires tax in 2022. We have to be very careful since the opponents are also very well financed and organized and are already lying about this as a tax increase in ordinary residents.
Find out more here. Lots of events in Somerville.
https://www.fairsharema.com/
One more time — the Fair Share Amendment is about income, not wealth. Even if passed, it will have no impact on the actual problem.
Massachusetts desperately needs a WEALTH tax, along the lines of that proposed by our senior senator.
Massachusetts also needs to increase our gift and estate tax, to avoid travesties like the way that Mitt Romney transferred huge amounts of wealth to his progeny with no tax consequences at all.
I support the Fair Share Amendment, just as I supported raising the minimum wage to $15/hour. Neither has any impact at all on the actual problem.
Would this mean going after the estate tax and increasing it or trying to create some kind of tax on any held asset? I’m for it too and perhaps that’s something the gubernatorial candidates can discuss.
An interesting poll came out in PA showing progressive populist Fetterman clobbering Oz but the more centrist AG Shapiro neck and neck with election stealing Doug Mastriano. One wonders if a bolder candidate is polling better for a reason or is it just because Oz is equally disrupted by swing voters and hardcore conservatives who might stay home?
I think two parallel efforts are needed:
Neither of these is difficult to administer. The first may require amending the state constitution.
I remind this audience that Democrats in Massachusetts have had a veto-proof supermajority in both houses of the state legislature since I moved here in 1974.
We Democrats have had PLENTY of time to address these wealth inequality issues. We’ve had plenty of time to amend the constitution. We’ve had plenty of time to address the several structural issues that continue to cause economic suffering.
These problems therefore do not persist because we Democrats are unable to correct them. They persist because we continue to be unwilling to correct them.
Perhaps, but is that a better option than the slow painful death experienced by the working class in supporting the current Democratic Party? Bear in mind, this is not unique to the USA. Democrats in the USA and liberal political parties across the globe see that working class voters are turning to the right as college educated voters turn to the left. The economies of the world, including the USA, have been restructured with policies that directly redistribute money from the traditional working class to people with more education. Yes, I will say it again, taxing the ordinary working class to pay off the college debt of the higher paid graduates is evidence of this.
Ah, I see. A grand plot. If we stipulate for a moment that this bizarre claim is true, then your passionate opposition to every attempt to make higher education more available to working class families makes you part of the conspiracy, doesn’t it?
The forces that fund, drive, and control the increasingly Fascist right oppose ALL public education. The forces that fight to expand human freedom and liberty passionately support expanding public education.
This particular line of commentary supports the fascist right. Is that what you intend?
No, not a “grand plot”, just a reality. Tell me why an auto worker or truck driver has to “compete” with their counterparts in Mexico but dentists, doctors, and lawyers do not? That’s just one of a hundred or more economic policies that the Republicans and the neoliberal Democrats have crafted in the past 50 years. Why is Facebook protected from Section 230? If not for government protections in the forms of patents and copyrights, Bill Gates would probably still be working for a living.
Why do you insist that only those with “higher education” (as defined by you) is the only way for a laborer to live a middle class life – and all those who are currently working at essential jobs that do not require a Sheepskin from a Prestigious School – deserve to live in poverty?
You want to label all the right wing working class voters as racists…but tell me how that, currently, a world wide phenomenon
I’m not going to continue this exchange.
I’m weary of constantly calling you your misquotes of me — never mind other Democrats.
Doctors and lawyers are providing a service that requires their physical presence, not shipping manufactured products across international boundaries. Also, there is a lot in your above comment that I’m pretty sure Tom never said. Not only is it right to protect intellectual property for those who created it, that is one of the handful of powers specifically enumerated in the Constitution for the federal government.
Every proposal I have heard to pay off college debt wants to have the wealthy to pay more to cover the costs, not the working class. I really wish you would stop pitting those constituencies against each other – that is exactly what Republicans and their wealthy constituents want!
Oh? I have yet to hear any Democrat say that in one sentence.
And let me add this: Let’s say my wife works at Christmas Tree Shop and I work at Midas Muffler. Together, we pull in $75 K a year but with child care and the rent on our two bedroom apartment, we’re just scraping by, if that……..
When we hear that the Democrats are going to “tax the rich” to pay off $20K off our friend’s college debt where they make more money than we do….we have to ask “What’s in this for us?”
Oh sure, we ought to be altruistic and rejoice that our friends will be relived from that burden that they chose to take on because it would make them more money…..
……but that’s not how people vote.
Which part of “Biden’s budget proposes tax hike on married filers making more than $450,000” (https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/29/bidens-budget-proposes-tax-hike-on-married-filers-over-450000.html) is hard for you to understand?
You appear to be so busy looking for ways to trash Democrats that you willfully ignore what the party has been saying for the last two years (and longer!).
Gee whiz Batman….there is no mention in the link that refers to cancelling college loan debt.
Do you know what “saying it in one sentence” means?
Governance usually doesn’t and shouldn’t happen one sentence at a time.
Democrats have been pursuing significant increases in taxes on the ultra-wealthy. We have simultaneously been promoting the cancelation of student loan debt.
Your demand that this be presented in one bumper-sticker assumes that the audience is too stupid to connect the two high-profile campaigns.
Or for that matter Elizabeth Warren. I specifically recall her campaigning for President on an additional two cents of every dollar for the wealthiest among us to help pay down college debt.
Not everything is for everybody. There are plenty of other policies that might help you instead. You act as if forgiving student loans is the only policy anyone has. If you are looking at this from a political angle than the thought is that those who DO benefit WILL be additional votes for Democrats.
The daughter of migrant workers, Republican Mayra Flores flipped a Democratic seat Tuesday in winning a special election in Texas’ 34th District, though the seat may flip back in November.
Vance Jones on CNN had some comments about this that I’d like to mention here. Republicans have established a core of working class voters with a populist message while Democrats have become a party of the very wealthy, highly educated and the poor/oppressed. I could not agree more. Democrats talk about trans rights in schools while Republicans talk about parents rights in school. There is a real and present trend among non-white working class voters who are attracted to the patriotic, family centered, law abiding, hard working, values based message being promoted by Republican candidates.
I agree that yesterday’s comments from Joe Biden about LGBTQ rights hurt our message.
This is certainly true, sadly.
As I’ve said here many times, “non-white” voters of EVERY class are no more immune to GOP lies than any other group.
I invite you to hazard a guess as to the predominant source for news and information in Texas 34
In what universe is today’s GOP:
I agree that Hispanic voters in Texas 34 embraced the lies of today’s GOP. I hope you agree that the GOP pitch for each of the five items you cite is a lie.
I’m enthusiastically signed up for a Democratic Party strategy of LOUDLY promoting our party’s leadership in each of these five areas.
I hope you agree that part of that pitch is explicitly and loudly calling out the GOP lies for each of those five points.
What did Biden say about LGBTQ rights that was problematic?
It is that he is talking about LGBTQ rights.
About 10% of the population self-identifies as LGBTQ. The effect of yesterday’s pitch was to make the rest of the electorate vulnerable to the GOP claim that “Democrats don’t care about YOUR family.”
The mid-term elections are less than five months away. Mr. Biden is the leader of the Democratic Party.
The headlines each day should hammering on the PRO-FAMILY programs of the Democratic Party. Executive orders should be PRO-FAMILY.
I’m willing to bet that yesterday’s LGBTQ pitch lost about ten times as many November votes as it gained.
Sounds to me like speaking about LGBTQ rights, which are by no means secure, can be construed as speaking about ALL families. Do you have a clip or at least direct quote? Seems to me we can speak about multiple things that are by no means mutually exclusive.
It was ALL OVER the news feed yesterday, did you not see it?
From the official White House announcement (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/06/15/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-sign-historic-executive-order-advancing-lgbtqi-equality-during-pride-month/):
Headline:
Lead Paragraph:
Not this late in an allegedly crucial mid-term campaign. Not when the White House is under attack from all usually friendly sides for being utterly disconnected from the concerns of most Americans.
The first two years of the Joe Biden administration have been characterized by muddled and confused messaging.
When the White House fails to control the message, then the media and the GOP fill the gap.
I’ve heard more than I want to hear about LGBTQ rights, and I’m a die-hard Democrat.
I did completely miss that, but not surprising that he took advantage of Pride Month to advance that. Today there was a bunch of stuff from him on economic issues. Surely he can multitask.
Nobody questions that Mr. Biden and the Democrats can “multitiask” — that’s been going for 2 years now.
The urgent need at the moment is FOCUS.
Mr. Biden can’t change the inflation rate. He can’t change the price of gasoline. It therefore doesn’t help to talk about “fighting” either one — the fight will not be “won” by November.
What Mr. Biden and the Democrats can and should do is talk about:
Your points #1, #2, #3, #4, & #5 are all valid, all true. It is also a valid and true statement to say that a Chevy Equinox is neither sporty, nor of much utility, and yet it is the best selling non-truck vehicle in the GM Chevy lineup and they promote it as a Sport Utility Vehicle. I’ve never seen anyone playing any sport at a “Sports Bar”, I just see lots of people staring at television screens, but my guess is that fewer would go if they called them “Television Bars”.
Perception is reality and Republicans have been able to mold the public’s perception of them as macho, patriotic, law abiding, “God” centered, and family focused.
What better example can I give than looking at the differences between Trump and Biden?
Biden still has his 1967 Corvette Stingray. He has a German Shepard. He went to a public high school and was on the football team. His dad worked at a car dealership. Biden’s son Beau served in the Iraq War.
Trump has a chauffeured limousine, doesn’t like dogs. He went to prep school and was on the golf team. His dad was a rich man who gave him millions of dollars. None of his sons or daughters ever enlisted in the military.
And yet, his backers see Trump as macho and see Biden as weak. In my opinion, Democrats are reluctant to portray any image of a powerful white male as they have made that the enemy of the many factions that they represent. It’s a pity.
We have an image problem, and it’s getting worse.
Since you obviously do know the real differences between Trump and Biden, why don’t you spend more energy hammering that rather than sympathizing so much with those who don’t know or don’t care?
It’s not about me. It’s not about the real differences. It’s about the public’s perception of the Democratic Party. It’s about losing the populist working class vote in the USA. Do you not care about that?
The party is perceived as the party of the educated elite who are the self appointed saviors and protectors of several oppressed minorities.
You comment elsewhere in this diary that “there is no outreach for men”.
It sounds to me as though it is, in fact, very much about you.
Yes, I am a man. But no Tom, it’s not about me. It’s about going after a large demographic that our party ignores, or even demonizes (see your post below) and then have to try and win elections by “turning out the vote” of several splintered minorities and hope to win an election.
I’m well aware of the importance of media messaging.
I suggest that Democratic messaging hammer on the many ways that Democrats advance each of those five points.
I suggest that Democratic messaging hammer on the many ways that Republicans lie about each of those five points — focusing on FACTS.
I suggest that those working-class voters — of ANY demographic — who remain in the thrall of the GOP are either willfully ignorant or actually LIKE who the GOP truly is.
Wait a second – isn’t being the party of the poor and oppressed a form of populism? Also, given their tax policies it is the Republicans who are clearly the party of the very wealthy. The Democrats favor policies favoring the middle and working classes.
The Republicans LIE about their policies. The Republicans loudly and repeatedly tell working-class voters that the GOP is working for them.
Yesterday, the Democratic Party told working-class voters that our top priority is LGBTQ families.
Is it any surprise that low-information working-class voters (those who get their news from Fox) believe that the GOP is better for them?
Working class and LGBTQ both fall under the umbrella of those who are too often not heard or represented. I doubt very highly Biden said anything that could be construed as excluding anyone who is not LGBTQ.
Well, it could be, if the majority of Americans were poor and oppressed (in fact or in their belief). The majority of Americans are simply, working class Americans without a college degree, without much concern with LGBTQ issues or abortion or college debt, and they don’t think they are racist. So the answer to your question is “no”, in the USA, being the party of the poor and oppressed is not populism.
But we ARE the party of ALL of the issues and constituencies you refer to in the above comment, none of which is mutually exclusive. Our proposed policies consistently bear that out!
I beg to differ, Even in our own state party, there is no outreach for men. There is an outreach committee for women. There is an outreach committee for LGBTQ. There is no outreach for men.
We are, by that one example alone, not the party of ALL the issues and constituencies.
When an organization has been utterly and completely dominated by men for generations — and is STILL utterly and completely dominated by men — what will be achieved by an “outreach for men”?
You and I are college-educated middle-class white men. We have dominated politics in Massachusetts and nationwide for decades.
Your “example” is stating the obvious. It isn’t relevant to what our message is or should be.
Election victories.
Ah, so the messaging to white males in Massachusetts is “Payback is a bitch – you are the cause of the world’s problems – we don’t want your vote”.
How’s that working out for the party?
I think in general we need to move away from identity politics and back towards the sort of universalist and pluralistic message of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and candidate Joe Biden. People are tired of being treated like they are some demographic to be sliced, diced, and sorted and we already saw a major majority Hispanic district in Texas elect it’s first Republican yesterday.
I feel like the party of “it’s the economy stupid!” is talking about e eye thing other than the economy. Abortion, Jan 6, Ukraine, climate. All incredibly important things that do not matter to swing voters. They care about inflation, gas prices, wages, housing, and unemployment. A bread and butter cost of living agenda would do wonders.
I give a lot of credit to Healey and Chang-Diaz, they are talking about jobs, housing, and transit and not centering their camping around their identities or barrier breaking potential. Warren and Sanders get this to. Why doesn’t Biden, Pelosi, or Schumer? Why don’t the centrists harping about the deficit focus on what actually matters to voters at the polls who are paying up the wazoo at the pump and the checkout line?
Today’s FB posts from Biden alone are plenty of evidence that he is talking about the economy, just for example. Not sure how you haven’t noticed.
This white man is a member of the state committee for crying out loud! I do not need my hand held or expressly reached out to. That the Democratic party shares my values and issue positions is outreach enough for me. There are plenty in our leadership including our Chair who are white men.
Your “message” has been the dominant theme of the Massachusetts GOP for decades. How’s that worked out for the MA GOP?
How long did Scott Brown last in Massachusetts?
The chip on you shoulder is your own. The burden of lifting it from your shoulder is also yours.